The driving force behind the technological development of mankind has been the ability to permanently record the achievements of past generations for selective distribution to new generations. The invention of a written language, and more recently printing and moveable type, has led to an accumulation of knowledge so vast that it cannot be absorbed by a single individual. With recent advances in electronic data storage, it is becoming possible to catalog and index this accumulation of knowledge so that selected portions are immediately accessible.
The primary purpose of accumulating and recording knowledge has been for direct human assimilation of selected portions. Although intelligent machines may eventually be developed for direct assimilation and comprehension of information, at the present time the primary end use of recorded information is for assimilation and comprehension by a human receiver. It has also become relatively easy to record, select and distribute information to human individuals in comparison to the time and effort required for a human individual to assimilate and comprehend the information. At the same time, society demands that its members should assimilate a greater quantity of information, as evidenced by the increasing number of years young persons devote to formal education.
Technology has offered some means of increasing the rate at which information can be assimilated by a human receiver. Advances in the printing art have made writings easier to read as well as universally available. More recently, the printed page has been supplanted to some degree by the rapid projection of a series of visual images in motion pictures and television. Modern psychology has verified the ancient observation that "a picture is worth a thousand words" by demonstrating that information in visual form is assimilated into a person's memory at a much greater rate than in verbal form. Although it is open to question whether comprehension is primarily a verbal as distinguished from a visual-based process, it is evident that the visual mode of assimilating information can be advantageously combined with the verbal mode. To some extent, the enhanced assimilation of audio-visual information has made up for a lack of adequate preparation of the message in a clear and concise form, or in the words of a mass media promoter, "the medium is the message." Multi-image presentations, employing the simultaneous projection of a plurality of distinct visual images along with an audio message, have exploited these principles.
Recent advances in electronics have made it possible to store, retrieve, and process individual frames of visual information. In contrast to sequential storage on video tape, random access semiconductor memory and video discs have been used for the real-time modification of the visual image. In video games, the displayed image is responsive to a player's actions. For television broadcast as well as for special effects in movie making, specialized digital electronic systems have been developed for storing, retrieving, and synthesizing video images.
One well-known kind of digital electronic video processor is called an "Electronic Still Processor" which is used primarily by the television broadcast industry. A representative processor is the "Electronic Still Processor ESP C Series Digital Storage And Retrieval System" manufactured and sold by ADD A Corp. 1671 Dell Avenue, Campbell, Calif. 95008. The ESP C Series processor includes an analog/digital conversion system, a microprocessor control system accessed via a control panel, and up to four hard disk drives for on-line storage of up to 3,000 frames or still images. The processor can retrieve any frame within less than half a second. The processor accepts inputs from conventional video sources such as video tape as well as synthetic sources such as character or special effects generators.
The individual frames can be edited to obtain any desired sequence or rate of play-back to generate a conventional television broadcast signal. The processor also has dual channel outputs so that one channel can be displayed while recording another, and one image can be superimposed on another. The processor may be used with an optional computerized Library Control System that provides off-line catalog, index, and reference information for searching or sorting stills based on title, category, geography, still number, source or date. The processor also supports an optional multiple frame or multiplex feature which compresses, recalls, and positions up to twenty-five stills on a video monitor in a 3.times.3 or 5.times.5 matrix format.